Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Why are wooden houses so popular in Australia? 29Jul 10, 2007 2:39 am Casa2 I was initially going to comment about the lower R value of concrete versus brick, but much to my surprise, brick has a thermal conductivity of 1.31 W/m.K, while concrete has a thermal conductivity of 0.29 W/m.K. That is, for the same thickness concrete has an R value 4.5 times greater (better) than brick.! This is interresting, because I read somewhere that concrete is 5 times worse as brick in terms of heat accumulation. But even if not, too much concrete is not very good for the health, then rather wood. Re: Why are wooden houses so popular in Australia? 30Jul 10, 2007 2:42 am Casa2 he confirmed that bricks are prone to cracking. I asked whether the foundation could be done such as to avoid this. Apparently with time brick wants to expand and concrete wants to shrink. I wish I knew that a lot earlier. I demolished a 80 years old house and the brick wasn't cracked. And back then the materials sucked, the bricks produced now has to be much much better. Re: Why are wooden houses so popular in Australia? 31Jul 10, 2007 7:40 am Maybe we have more extremes in weather - drought vs floods, temperatures etc that are causing timber to shrink & expand more rapidly therefore causing more cracking?
There are some aspects of design that will always cause cracks: * brickwork connected to gyprocking - as Casa mentioned. We have this in our kitchen where above the rangehood is gyprock but the main part of the wall is brick - always cracking there * split level slabs - e.g. when you walk into our unit there is a small landing then 4 steps down to the living room. Every unit in our apartment either has steps up or down from the front door into the living areas. To do this - they had 2 separate slabs joined by the steps. In every single apartment, the section of wall near the join cracks terribly - about 7mm. The builder even admitted that they didn't know that it would cause problems & that they never build like that after they learned their lesson! Re: Why are wooden houses so popular in Australia? 32Jul 10, 2007 8:35 am stonecutter1309 I can see how it's easier to go double brick in places like WA where the soil is so stable. I thought Perth was predominantly a big sandpit. Not stable at all. Re: Why are wooden houses so popular in Australia? 33Jul 10, 2007 9:08 am Bud - my thinking is that it doesn't expand and contract the way clay does in other parts of the country - I could be very wrong! Re: Why are wooden houses so popular in Australia? 34Jul 10, 2007 10:29 am stonecutter1309 Maybe we have more extremes in weather - drought vs floods, temperatures etc that are causing timber to shrink & expand more rapidly therefore causing more cracking? That is very possible, of course. Old Home Restoration / Renovation To reduce noise transfer without compromising the aesthetic of your exposed I beams, consider filling the 100mm gap between the I beams and the floor above with dense,… 6 9146 If you don't want to annoy the neighbours then simply get yourself some good head phones. For me the sound is much better using headphones. The NCC (National Construction… 1 26168 Adam Baines Grad Cert Bldg Surv / Grad Dip Bldg Surv / MSAAPA Accredited Building Professional APB20210035 Builders Lic 183023 Pest Control Lic 84868 Ph 0412202336 PO… 3 46834 |